Moving, Cleaning, and The Urn

We're moving (new job) and I am in the process of cleaning out closets.  I don't want to move clutter - I hate clutter.  It's such a feeling of relief and zen when you have a closet cleaned out, the extra space in sight, the order of things in their place - it almost makes me want to light a cigarette, only I don't smoke.

Today's task is the hall closet.  I have put it off for over a week now after putting it at the top of my daily list.  Inevitably every morning I rise, take K-man to daycare, come back home, consult my list, and find something else to do other than face that catasphrophe at the end of the hall.  Today's calling is to tackle this job and get it off my conscience.

Out of this spectacle of disorder, there are piles for the following:

• To Save
• For the Hubby to inspect and decide to keep or toss
• Trash
• Set out on the curb and let someone else take it because it's still perfectly usable (extra iron anyone?)
• The Urn

Yes, we have an urn.  It  was a wedding present.  Someone bought it for us off of one of the wedding registries.  We didn't register for it, I promise.  How it got on there is one of those mysteries that will never be solved.  Nevertheless, we have an urn. It was at our engagement party with flowers in it.  Very pretty and kind of creepy.  The urn has spent the last five years in the hall closet - hidden but not forgotten.  So, my question is, what do you do with an urn that you have no intention of using for ashes?  Should I set it out in the "Set out on the curb" pile?  Do you donate an urn?  You can't really re-gift it - that's creepier than getting it for a wedding present (I think).  And really, I don't want it moving with us although it has developed a sort of celebrity status in our list of all things odd.

Candy dish, anyone?

Christmas season with a 3 year old - Update 1

It's been a while BlogLand.  I read everyone else's blogs every weekday but can't seem to find fodder for mine.  Or maybe I'm just really lazy and it's easier to read someone else's wit and humor.  Anyways, here's a quick insight into our lives -

I have hormonies running rampant in my body today. So I went to bed an hour earlier last night but woke up two hours earlier this morning because the fricking sheet was wrapped all the way around my body and pissed me off as I was trying to get out of bed at 4AM to go pee. *sigh* So I was awake after that – rage keeps me from sleeping.


We went and totally spoiled K-man on his birthday. Hubby got him a gun that goes “tat tat tat atat tat tat atat” – loudly. I got him a game that connects to the tv and makes him run in place on a pad – Mama makes sure the boy wears off some of that energy.

We went to the local Christmas on Main Saturday afternoon – suck-o-matic, seriously. And now K wants nothing to do with Santa. We’re going to try getting his picture at Bass Pro with Santa there...maybe that might work? I dunno. He just keeps asking about Santa’s truck (Fed-Ex). Way to go, me, now I have to explain why Santa’s truck is still hanging around after Christmas.

I tried a new bread recipe for no-knead dough. It was successful – if you call something that you can use in self defense and break a tooth on “successful”.

K has a little Christmas tree in his room now. I let him pick it out. It’s electric blue with multi-color lights on it and red shatterproof ball ornaments. It’s “festive”....kind of like “hooker on 6th street” festive, but hey, who’s judging?

I also found these cute little window cling decorations for the window in the living room. A painstaking 10 minutes of positioning the damn things so that Frosty the Snowman had snowflakes all perfectly around him, and 30 seconds later, Frosty ain’t got no hands and his eyes have been plucked out. Thank you, son.

I played Christmas music for dinner on Friday evening and started hearing whining and “I don’t wanna listen to Christmas music”. In all of my essence of Christmas perfection, I said, “Mama wants to listen to Christmas music so suck it up and eat your chicken nuggets! We’re going to be cheery!!”. Ah yes...reason #587 why I’m not getting a mother of the year award.

The nativity scene underneath the Christmas tree got ran over by a 3 year old’s John Deere truck careening wildly out of control. The wise men look like the Virgin Mary flashed them some boobage – wide eyes and laying on the floor. Baby Jesus still looks serene, though, so all is good.

iList

Another fruitful meeting, another obvious exercise in mindless doodling.  Today's creation = the iList.  (as copied off of the bottom of the legal size sheet I was supposed to be engrossed in)

iPod
iPhone
iWant
iEat
iSleep
iCook
iClean
iPee
iKnow
iNurture
iCare
iDigress
iLove
iPray
iType
iShoot
iGarden
iScratch
iCalculate
iRepeat
iSlurp
iWalk
iHop

What can you add to the iList?

Conversation with Hubby - 1

Hubby took K-man to daycare this morning and then went back to the house to get his work truck. Before he left, he switched out the laundry loads. His question to me at lunch? “Why is there a plastic cow in the dryer?”


Me, “Because it doesn’t have an off button and it was driving me flipping nuts. It won’t shut up!”

Him, “So you stuck it in the dryer?”

Me, “Yup. And I slammed the door closed on it, and then closed the door to the wash room.”

Him, “Did that make you feel better?”

Me, “A little. I hate that cow.”

Him, “hmmm...hormones, huh?”

Dinner Idea

I was crammed for time last week after work and needed a quick and easy dinner - and it had to be dairy free - so I came up with this.

Mexican Chicken Lettuce Wraps

• One Rotisserie Chicken
• One can of pinto beans, mostly drained (do not rinse)
• One package of Uncle Ben's brown rice 90 second microwave packet
• Your favorite salsa or picante
• One package of Bib Lettuce

Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet while shredding half of the chicken.  Add the meat to the skillet and heat through for a few minutes.  Heat the rice in the microwave.  Add the can of beans and heat for another minute or two.   I added a little pepper and season salt at this point.  Add the rice and about a 1/3 cup of salsa/picante.  Stir to mix thoroughly and heat through.

Wash the lettuce leaves and keep in tact.  Serve by allowing each person to fill his/her own lettuce leaf with the chicken mixture.  Top with shredded cheese, sour cream, and/or more salsa/picante. 

My husband and I ate our fill of this and still had enough leftovers to make a dinner for me the next evening.  K-man didn't touch the stuff.  *sigh* 

Phone Photo Friday

I'm totally stealing this idea from Joanna's blog. I have no shame. 

This week's recap in photos...

Helped "Da" purchase copious amounts of plastic storage boxes in order to organize our closets.  What you don't see in this photo are all of the plastic bins K-man pulled off of the lower shelves.  I'm sure the wals-marts loves to see us coming in the front doors.

Discovered that I have reached a new level in "mindless doodling" while on the phone at work. 

Found a photo from a vacation we took a few months prior to our first wedding anniversary.  We were so rested and weighed so much less. Little did we know that at that very moment our house was flooding with water, in August, in Texas.  We would find that out about five days later.  Thus began our whirlwind adventures of home remodeling, mold prevention, and the eventual leap into pregnancy and parenthood.

I became Red Cross certified in CPR, AED, and First Aid this week. 

Ready to Pluck some Tailfeathers

Every morning this week, I have been awaked by the sound of a bird singing.  It's not on my iPhone and it's not on my alarm clock.  It is a real bird, who, every morning at 6:00, perches himself (herself?) somewhere on my front porch and commences to sing a little three-note diddy - at maximum volume - repetitively.  It wakes me up, wakes my husband up, and more importantly, wakes our 2 year old up - and this is one week that we have been sleeping in - or at least trying to.  This bird is walking on the proverbial thin ice. 

Watch it, birdie!  You woke up the wrong mama!

Spoke Too Soon

I found a bad one.  Lunch today is/was Kashi's Chicken Florentine.

This...

...is really really icky. 

Endeavoring

The Free Dictionary defines endeavoring as "A conscientious or concerted effort toward an end; an earnest attempt".  Well then, I am still endeavoring to lose weight.  As I have said before on this blog, I am a sucker.  Show me a commercial and I'll usually decide that I need it.  Whatever IT is. 

Jack Lalane's juicer?  Check!  Got it at Bed Bath and Beyond with a 20% off coupon.  I use it regulary to make juice for my little sidekick - it is one of the few ways I can get vegetables down him.

Space Saver Bags?  Check!  Bought them at Target.  Used them to compact and store pillows, blankets, and quilts.  Half of them lost their seal and fluffed right back up.

Giant ZipLoc bags?  Check!  Bought them after the Space Saver Bags failed.  Now I put it in a giant ZipLoc bag, fold it up, and sit on it to get all the air out while fumbling with the ziploc portion to close the bag.  They have, however, been a success.

The latest thing that got my attention?  Jenny Craig.  Because, after all, if people on tv can do it, I can too, right?  *crickets chirping* I said, Right???    After reading their website I was even further enamored with the idea of signing up, eating what someone told me too, and waking up ten weeks later with twenty fewer pounds.  Unfortunately, the independent reviews I read took the sparkle off the stone.  One of my favorite recipe sites is http://www.epicurious.com/.  It ranks right up there with http://www.allrecipes.com/.  They had a great review of several diet options out there including Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem.  At the end of the review, they sat down and looked at (and tasted) some of the frozen meal options available from the grocery store, and gave the highest ratings to Kashi.  So, rather than fork over a bunch of money to Jenny Craig and settle for some crappy food, I decided to try some things on my own.

Breakfast has taken some ideas from Hungry Girl's 200 under 200 cookbook.  Have you heard of this?  I borrowed it from a friend and love having some things to eat for breakfast that are super easy, not eggs, and are low on calories.  My recent adaptation has been half a toasted whole grain English muffin (75 calories) with one ounce of fat free cream cheese (30 calories), a teaspoon of avocado (no idea how many calories), and three slices of roma tomato with salt and pepper.  I love this!  It feels so indulgent with all of that cream cheese (one ounce is a lot on half a muffin!). 

For lunch, I have been having a Kashi frozen meal.  These are so freaking good, 300 calories or less, full of protein, and a hefty serving of fiber.  Sorry, don't mean to sound like a commercial, but I'm really impressed. 

Lunch today was the Pesto Pasta Primavera - soooo good and pesto-y, the pasta was al dente, the peas were fresh and popped when you bit them. I'll be having more of these for lunch. 

My downfall so far, though, is dinner.  That's tough.  My goal is salads for dinner this week - we'll see what happens.

What are your favorite foods that don't break the calorie bank?

The Itchies

Last week was the opening of dove hunting here in Texas, and the company I work for hosted a dove hunt on opening day at the company ranch.  Sounds fancy, huh?  It was hot...really hot...the kind of still hot that comes right before a bunch of thunderstorms.  I grabbed one of the girls from the office and, like a good friend, begged and pleaded until she finally relented and got her to go out there with me.  We were the only two women shooters.

Despite the heat, things appeared to be going well.  The vehicle was well equipped with guns, shells, water, and snack (all the important stuff).  We grabbed our gear and found a little spot by a water hole and waited.

Nice vest, huh?

Double checking the action to make sure it wasn't sticky.

All went well.  We waited. We sweated.  We shot.  We killed a few birds.  We ate dinner courtesy of a chuck wagon gang.  We went home tired, happy, and wet from the thunderstorms that eventually blew through.

The next day red spots started appearing on us.  That evening, we itched.  And we have been itching for over a week now.  The reason?  These.

That's a chigger - under a microscope.

Apparently where we were, there were hundreds of these - and they found us. 

Damn.